Renovation - what would you change?

[BackAwayFatty]

We are considering buying this house.

We have three children - girl 10, boy, 7, boy, 5. We would like another at some point.

We would like to add a shower room close to the master bedroom. Probably do an open plan kitchen/dining room.

Can't remove the second staircase at the back due to the structure of extension.

How would you change the layout?

I do not like that layout at all.

You have to go up different stairs to get to your bedroom? And no access to upstairs other bedrooms and toilets?

What if there was a fire? Youd have no chance of getting to the kids. I cant believe that has been allowed I'm assuming it's an extension

I'd put the bathroom into bedroom 4 and open up that so you have access to all the first floor

Then divide bedroom 2 and 3 equally to create 3 smaller bedrooms I guess?

I think you would be crazy to not have access to your children at night re fires or illness.

Take out the bathroom on the 1st floor and replace with a corridor to master bedroom - knock a doorway through. Remodel bedroom 3 to include other half of old bathroom, and then fit new bathroom between Bed 2 and new Bed 3.
Take out 2nd staircase giving you room for ensuite in master bed

It's a terrible layout & I agree about the having no access to the other rooms in a fire. Didn't think about illness - good point!

Yes an extension, badly designed.

Due to funding criteria it's looking like the only option hence the reworking of the layout

I was also thinking move bathroom to bedroom 4.

The current owners reckon the second staircase can't be removed due to the structure so no en-suite on the master bedroom.

So many ideas in my head but not sure what's realistic!

I'm thinking move the bathroom to bedroom 4.

Open up kitchen/dining room.

Create corridor between lounge & second staircase, making lounge into master bedroom.

I think you need to be careful in properties like that, to ensure they are priced taking in to account the bad layout. You may well lose a bedroom to fix the layout, and if that isn't already factored in the price you could spend a lot in renovations only to devalue it (despite ending up with a more practical property ).

Gosh I normally love playing about with layouts but that's really difficult. I think it will be hard to get a decent layout from that which would work for a family home for 5 possibly 6 people, especially when your DC are older.

If you did your plan of making the lounge a master bedroom you'd be left with a v small dark kitchen/dining/living area. Too small I think for a large family to be comfortable and with a disproportionate amount of space on bedrooms.

I can't see why you can't remove the staircase - if it's holding up the extension then you have bigger problems than the layout...

The only thing I could see that you could do would be to remove the staircase (even if you have to put in a steel), make the lounge a kitchen/diner/family room, make the existing kitchen a bit smaller and have it as a utility room (all that laundry), then the dining/living room as a snug/adult living room.

Upstairs I would remove the existing bathroom to allow access to the master bedroom, and then put a small shower room in the lower left corner of the master, a small corridor and then a family bathroom in the lower right corner using some space from where the old bathroom used to be. I did draw it out but the app won't allow me to attach the photo

Proper closed off living room at front. Get rid of staircase and loo in lounge and make that one big room. Rejig kitchen and diner incorporating loo somewhere in this space and making it fairly open plan.
Get rid of bathroom upstairs. Have 2 doors through to master bed. Make one on the left leading into a bathroom in the corner. One on the right into the master. Ideally the bathroom should be bedroom 4.
Long-term I'd go out over the garage or up. Up probably better as you'd potentially get two beds and get a second bathroom (and get to convert the bathroom in the master into an ensuite.
At the minute I'd guess it was priced at a 4 bed when it's really a 3 with a bonus room.

I would build on the ground floor - between the lounge and the garage i.e. the bit that shows the label for 'breakfasting/kitchen'. We'll call that space 'infill'. Have a back door there. Build on the first floor - above infill and above the garage.
Take out the gubbins (staircase and downstairs loo etc) from lounge and master bedroom.
Extend the kitchen leftwards into infill. Incorporate the dining room into this area. Thus the whole middle section of the house will be kitchen-diner, downstairs loo and utility.
Move the bathroom into over-infill. Maybe have separate upstairs loo, where loo currently is? Or a separate shower-room?
Create doorway from landing for master bedroom (where bath used to be) and another to the over-garage room which will be bedroom 5. The landing will now have no natural light; can you create a skylight?
Create en suite in master bedroom, above where the downstairs loo currently is (i.e. the other side of the wall to new bathroom, so pipework is all together).
Turn lounge into a super playroom/familyroom/chill-out. With door to garden?
Re-jig living room walls. Remove door between dining and living rooms, so that is a solid wall. Extend wall opposite fireplace so it is more like the wall of Bedroom 2: this will expand hall to create a passageway (parallel to the stairs) through to the kitchen-diner (new doorway). This means that you can now go directly from hall to kitchen, instead of through living room then dining room. Living room will be study/quiet space/grown-up room.
No idea how much all that would cost!

We may after all be able to buy another house. Find out tomorrow - fingers crossed.

But I'm having fun with this in the mean time

So many options - like the idea of extending the breakfasting area.

So if it were like this ... would you put the living area at the back of the house or kitchen/diner?

Realised that option would mean no natural light to kitchen/dining area.

Green - living area
Blue - kitchen/diner

I think unless you get that at a really great price it will cost a lot of money to make it work. You would be better off finding a property with a more sensible layout and extending on to that sensibly to end up with what you need. Just make sure you dont do a stupid extension which is what they have done!

I don’t like the idea of losing a bedroom upstairs but would have to have master bedroom linked to rest of bedrooms. Wondering whether it might be possible make an L shaped bathroom using some of existing bathroom and the cupboard then going round the corner to master bedroom with window to the side. Then entrance to master bedroom in middle and ensuite to left as you go in from landing. With staircase gone it’s a decent sized room and could cope with a few feet off end .

Disclaimer, I have no idea if Lshaped bathrooms work in reality and I think there would be issues knocking through that part of the house potentially as think it is old external wall.

Ignore me, it’s not l shaped at all, need more caffeine, sorry!

I would put the bathroom in bedroom 4 and build a new bedroom over the garage. What is now the bathroom would be the hallway landing. Aside from the fire risk, what a pain to have to go downstairs and come back other ones just to have a shower in the morning.